Into The Woods: A Journey With the Tarot

This week we're going back to Tarot basics and talking about the four suits and the history of Tarot as a playing card game. Why are there four suits? What do they each represent? Is one suit better than others? I answer all these important questions in this episode. Like in astrology, the four suits are connected to the four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. Each suit also is associated with either archetypal feminine energy or archetypal masculine energy. Adding to this framework, I also like to incorporate Jung's theory of personality types and the four cognitive functions (thinking, feeling, intuiting, and sensing), by attributing one of these to each tarot suit. If you really understand the qualities of each suit and some of the numerology, then there's really no need to memorize all the tarot meanings!

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Join the email list here for pictures of the cards I pull or talk about on the podcast, the spreads I offer, and other fun musings on the tarot!

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Website: www.mariofthewoods.com
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This week's episode is a deep dive into the Hierophant card and how to work with this archetype to find your spiritual center and connection to the divine. I don't know about you, but I'd never seen the word "Hierophant" before using tarot and had no idea what it was! A "hierophant" is a priest in ancient Greece, more specifically the chief priest of the Eleusinian Mysteries (ancient religious rites in honor of Demeter and Persephone). Before the Rider-Waite-Smith deck in 1909, this card was typically entitled "The Pope." In this episode, we talk about the complicated archetype of spiritual leaders and institutions, ways we look for meaning through religion and spirituality, and how the hot priest from Fleabag, The Leftovers, and Hogwarts can help us understand this card. We close with some powerful journal prompts to use when you pull The Hierophant, which can be turned into a spread if desired.

Join the email list here for pictures of the cards I pull or talk about on the podcast, the spreads I offer, and other fun musings on the tarot!

Check out my workshop and past life regression meditation: Releasing Leo

Book a reading with Mari

Website: www.mariofthewoods.com
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
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Shadow work, the unconscious...these are terms used a lot in the world of spirituality and in psychology. But what is it, where did this term originate, and why on earth would we want to access it? In this episode, I take us back to Freud and Jung who popularized the ideas of the unconscious mind, the collective unconscious, dream work, and other methods of making the unconscious conscious (aka shadow work!). I share a few recent breakthroughs that I've had in my shadow work journey, and then we close with some simple ways you can start using tarot to work with the unconscious.

Join the email list here for pictures of the cards I pull or talk about on the podcast, the spreads I offer, and other fun musings on the tarot!

Check out my workshop and past life regression meditation: Releasing Leo

Book a reading with Mari

Website: www.mariofthewoods.com
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
TikTok: @mariofthewoods

When you’re tasked with putting a lot of meaning into the tiny space of a tarot card, every little detail counts. Pamela Colman Smith, the artist of the Rider-Waite-Smith deck, was incredibly intentional with her use of symbols, colors, clothing, environments, and more. I don’t often work with the original RWS deck, so whenever I return to it, I find myself noticing something new—and this is one of my favorite things about the Tarot. No matter how long you’ve worked with the cards, there’s always something you haven’t noticed before.

This time, I noticed just how many figures are wearing red hats and started wondering what that might mean and what connections might exist between these cards. Join me as I explore the symbolism of the red hats, along with some other fun new observations I made while looking through the deck!

Join the email list here for pictures of the cards I pull or talk about on the podcast, the spreads I offer, and other fun musings on the tarot!

Check out my workshop and past life regression meditation: Releasing Leo

Book a reading with Mari

Website: www.mariofthewoods.com
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
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Relationship readings are one of my most popular requests, so I found it high time for an episode on tarot for relationships. In this episode, I offer 3 different spreads to use for relationships and demonstrate each one. The first is the most commonly used relationship spread, next is a spread for arguments and conflict inspired by the book Fight Right by the Gottmans, and last is a spread for those of you in long committed relationships to help bring your connection a little more attention.

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Check out my workshop and past life regression meditation: Releasing Leo

Book a reading with Mari

Website: www.mariofthewoods.com
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
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Synchronicities are meaningful coincidences that cannot be explained by reason, yet these moments are infused with deep significance.  This concept, explored in depth by psychologist Carl Jung, is key to understanding how tarot works and the tarot delivers synchronicities to us constantly. In this episode, we talk about this magical phenomenon, how it relates to tarot and dreams, and how to work with cards that just won't leave us alone a.k.a. stalker cards! At the end, I offer 4 ways to work with stalker cards and provide a simple "stalker spread" for digging into a reappearing card that you just don't understand.

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Check out my workshop and past life regression meditation: Releasing Leo

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Website: www.mariofthewoods.com 
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In the Matrix, the Oracle points to a sign in her kitchen that means "know thyself." This is exactly what the High Priestess in tarot asks of us. She demands that we look at whats hidden: our secrets, our shadow, the things we've shoved into the dark. This episode is a deep dive into this mysterious and alluring figure. We cover the astrology, numerology, and mythology tied to the card, explore some high priestess characters in popular fiction, and talk about how to work with this card in your own tarot practice. We close with a high priestess inspired tarot spread.

Check out my workshop and past life regression meditation: Releasing Leo

Book a reading with Mari

Website: www.mariofthewoods.com 
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
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In this episode, I talk about how a deck interview can help you understand the energy of your deck and strengthen your relationship with your decks. I offer my own 4 question deck interview spread and then actually do the interview with a deck I just bought! 

The new deck I'm working with is the Flower Child deck by Kira Cyan

My new workshop, Releasing Leo: A Past Life Regression Experience is available now on my website!  Please check it out and tell your friends!

Where to find Mari
www.mariofthewoods.com 
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
TikTok: @mariofthewoods

In this episode, I talk about how Lion shows up as a symbol in the tarot. Lions appear in 6 cards in tarot, Strength, Wheel of Fortune, The World, 2 of Cups, and the Queen and King of Wands. We talk about what lions represent in each of these cards, lions in mythology, the archetype of Leo and more!

Where to find Mari
www.mariofthewoods.com 
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
TikTok: @mariofthewoods

Understanding the meaning of individual cards is important of course, but the true art of tarot is making connections between multiple cards. It can be challenging to get past interpreting one card at a time, so in this episode I lay out 5 steps for reading multiple cards together. The magic is in zooming out and getting a sense of the bigger picture.

I'm now offering a beautiful combination of Tarot + Energy Healing with Reiki. Book a session on my website.

Where to find Mari
www.mariofthewoods.com 
Instagram: @mariofthewoods
TikTok: @mariofthewoods